ABU DHABI // Madonna's 2012 world tour is due to be announced this morning and is expected to include a stop in the capital in June.
Live Nation, the promoter, yesterday confirmed it would be announcing full details of the tour after the singer’s performance at the NFL Super Bowl in Indiana.
Tyler Mervyn, the managing director of Live Nation Middle East, said the company was “very excited to be producing and promoting Madonna’s 2012 World Tour” in support of her new album, MDNA.
A source at Universal Music, which owns Madonna’s label Interscope, said: “Live Nation haven’t given us the details yet; I heard she was coming to Abu Dhabi.”
Another Dubai industry insider, who is on the promoter’s private mailing list, added: “It’s in Live Nation’s schedule but there hasn’t been an official comment yet.”
Rumours about the tour have been rife over the past few months, started by the apparent leak of an itinerary in October.
The document, printed on the Live Nation letterhead, listed a concert in the UAE on June 6.
At the time, Live Nation Middle East insisted it was not genuine: “As much as we would love it to be real, the Madonna article going around is a hoax.”
But a music industry insider in Dubai, who was close to the concert negotiations, confirmed Madonna has been booked to play in Abu Dhabi on that date and will be paid US$5 million (Dh18.4m) by the Abu Dhabi promoter Flash Entertainment.
“The itinerary was originally leaked by an employee at the Live Nation office in Sydney, who was boasting about the Madonna tour to a journalist,” the insider said.
He said the employee had been heralding the end of the Sydney office's long drought of major shows.
After the itinerary leak, a Spanish hacker, 31, was arrested in November for leaking Give me all your Luvin', the first single from MDNA.
The song has appearances from the British-Sri Lankan rapper MIA and the US hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj. The single was officially released on Friday, and the album will be out March 26.
According to Interscope, MDNA was recorded in New York and LA, and reunited Madonna with William Orbit, the producer behind her 1998 album Ray of Light.
MDNA will be the singer’s debut release from her new $120m partnership with Live Nation, and her first not released through Warner Bros, with whom she had been signed since 1982.
molson@thenational.ae
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
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FFP EXPLAINED
What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.
What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.
What are the penalties?
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.
Votes
Total votes: 1.8 million
Ashraf Ghani: 923,592 votes
Abdullah Abdullah: 720,841 votes
Brief scores:
Manchester United 4
Young 13', Mata 28', Lukaku 42', Rashford 82'
Fulham 1
Kamara 67' (pen),
Red card: Anguissa (68')
Man of the match: Juan Mata (Man Utd)
Scores
Wales 74-24 Tonga
England 35-15 Japan
Italy 7-26 Australia
More on Quran memorisation:
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Cultural fiesta
What: The Al Burda Festival
When: November 14 (from 10am)
Where: Warehouse421, Abu Dhabi
The Al Burda Festival is a celebration of Islamic art and culture, featuring talks, performances and exhibitions. Organised by the Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development, this one-day event opens with a session on the future of Islamic art. With this in mind, it is followed by a number of workshops and “masterclass” sessions in everything from calligraphy and typography to geometry and the origins of Islamic design. There will also be discussions on subjects including ‘Who is the Audience for Islamic Art?’ and ‘New Markets for Islamic Design.’ A live performance from Kuwaiti guitarist Yousif Yaseen should be one of the highlights of the day.
